Automated machinery and robotics have come to play an integral role in industry, allowing production lines to proceed more quickly, efficiently, and with increasing safety to laborers within the plant. Production line automation often results in machines assuming those steps that are either dangerous or too demanding for human workers, or that require repetitious routines.
Some automated plants utilize carriers to aid in transporting the plants products from one point in the production line to another. Trays, bowls, and boxes have been employed, carrying goods. The carriers have also doubled as packaging for manufactured goods passed into the marketplace. Food processing plants have also made use of such carriers, with such products as baked, frozen, and canned goods.
Some plants stack product carriers (or collectively “trays”) at points within the production and delivery process. Automated stacking machinery exists that allows trays to be stacked from conveyor assembly to build a stack built from the top down—that is, new trays are added to the top of the stack, until the stack reaches a height nearing that of the conveyor. As the stack grows, conventional stacking machinery requires the conveyors and other stacking assemblies to be elevated off the ground to allow for the stack to be built in its downwardly, progressing orientation, beneath the assemblies. These elevated assemblies often make monitoring and maintenance of the stacking machinery difficult and expensive. Additionally, faults and breakdowns with conventional stacking machinery can result in stoppages to the entire assembly line, resulting in costly production delays, lost profit, and man-hours.